STAY by THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER IN ESTORIL

Guests socializing during the wedding party at the Palácio Estoril Hotel

• Pode ler este artigo em Português. 

Capturing Reactions of Affection in Photographs

All wedding photographers have had that moment when they truly became one. As is normal when starting any profession, there’s a period of doubt and uncertainty that often makes us question whether this is really what we’re meant to do. Even today, I sometimes still reflect on it. For the wedding photographer, always curious, who enjoys moments of quick reactions in social events that are irresistible attractions.

I clearly remember the wedding where, for the first time, I felt I was photographing the way I believed it should be done. After the meal, I wandered around with the camera, ready to reach my right eye and, almost without noticing, capturing reactions of affection, of laughter, of surprise—or even of nothing at all.

Motivation to Photograph at the Wedding

It was at that wedding that I truly became a wedding photographer. Then, back at the studio, reviewing the number of those moments that made their way to the couple’s home, I realized that, for them too, I wouldn’t have been the same photographer if I hadn’t done it that way.

From that day on, it’s true, I started going to each wedding not as the photographer, but as a curious observer with a strong motivation to photograph. And that changed everything. It changed my attitude, it changed my goal, and it changed the final result of my work on days like that. As I’ve written here before, that day I felt I had become part of the great group of wedding photographers. Because you’re not one—you become one.

Point by point:

• Everyone who loves their profession has probably had that one moment when it all made sense, and everything was decided from then on.
• I had my wedding photographer moment, and I remember it clearly:
  • I felt it was what made sense to be doing that way
  • Having the camera ready among the wedding guests felt perfect
• I confirmed it later, when editing the photographs, that I had found the place where I belonged:
  • At a wedding, photographing
  • I became a wedding photographer. Until today.

You need to know:

• I had many years of photography behind me when that happened. It was at a time when I was starting to doubt whether I’d continue as a photographer, and I had never been interested in photographing weddings. It was a mere coincidence—or maybe not—and it was an epiphany. All these words I write here come from that, and they are all sincere. I am a wedding photographer.

Because of that, I would be honored to be at your wedding. Not to fulfill a personal wish or to satisfy a need to photograph but because I know how to do it well. Come confirm it in a meeting; I would be pleased to show you everything you’d like to see and answer all your questions.